"The current Successor [to John Paul II] assumes as his primary commitment that of working tirelessly towards the reconstitution of the full and visible unity of all Christ's followers." - Pope Benedict XVI (April 20, 2005)

"The true union between Christians is that which Jesus Christ, the Author of the Church, instituted and desired, and which consists in a unity of faith and unity of government." - Pope Leo XIII (Praeclara Gratulationis Publicae, 1894)

"[T]he union of Christians can only be promoted by promoting the return to the one true Church of Christ of those who are separated from it, for in the past they have unhappily left it." - Pope Pius XI (Mortalium animos, 1928)

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About Me

I was raised Pentecostal, then became Reformed (Presbyterian) just after finishing my bachelor's degree. I received an M.Div. from Covenant Theological Seminary (PCA), and a PhD in philosophy from Saint Louis University. In 2003 I became Anglican. On October 8, 2006, my wife and two daughters and I were received into full communion with the Catholic Church. Email me at crossbr 'at' gmail 'dot' com.

Saturday, May 30, 2009

I recently added two posts at Called to Communion. The first is about the nature of faith in relation to reason, and about a significant difference between Catholic and Protestant conceptions of faith in relation to the Church. The second is a reflection on the relevance of the Ascension to the meaning of life and finding true happiness.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Michael Spencer (aka iMonk) has become my favorite Baptist blogger. That's because he is ecumenical in the catholic sense, seeking to mine the gold of all the Christian traditions, without being a relativist or soft-pedaling the truth. And he's best when analyzing his own tradition in a "Let's have a family talk" sort of way, because he's humble enough to see what others don't let themselves see, and courageous enough to know it must be said. He's the Evangelicals' gadfly, as Socrates was to the Athenians, but with a twist of Thomas Merton meets Wendell Berry.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

A recent post titled "Off-Duty Megachurches" on Christianity Today's blog, led me to Joe Johnson's Mega Churches gallery (at the link, click on "projects", and then click on "Mega Churches"). The photos are, in a way, spiritually nauseating. So I wrote some thoughts on the underlying problem, here.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

I posted an argument here that the following three claims are incompatible with each other: the beatific vision was natural to unfallen man, the Church and State should be separate, and the State did not result from the Fall. We can retain the latter two claims only by denying the first claim. And this has soteriological implications regarding the disagreement between Protestants and the Catholic Church over the doctrines of the Fall, original sin, and ultimately, justification.

Friday, May 8, 2009

The Most Reverend Raymond Leo Burke, who is the Archbishop-Emeritus of Saint Louis, and is also the Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura in Rome, delivered the keynote address this morning at the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast in Washington D.C. In this address he explained what it means to live out the virtue of patriotism, as a Catholic in present-day America. The address can be found here. I highly recommend it.